Recent reviews by Daiviey

I had been putting off picking up this game for a while, I always thought it looked cool aesthetically and that the realm cards seemed like an interesting solution to multiplayer persistence and the potential for biome diversity. I am always pretty hesitant with survival crafting games, i'm not the most patient gamer so the grind can be tough if it doesn't disperse the dopamine hits well enough. Nightingale looked like it had a lot of work to do initially, and it definitely does still. But with the new update I thought it might have addressed some of the performance issues I was seeing. So I picked it up.

I just played for about 5 hours straight which at my age is a feat of neglect that i didn't think was possible anymore.
It might be just the right time and i might just be in the right mental state to put up with the tedium but the game loop is hitting for me. It has an absurdly clunky crafting system that requires you to build entirely new stations for almost every category of consumable and tool, each of these tools requires a pretty diverse array of materials to craft with. This being said, I find it a pretty rewarding process once you start to snowball some essence and establish your respite (Base).


There are a lot of things the tutorial doesn't tell you and i feel like they are relying on the player to have prior experience with survival games to really have a footing in terms of knowing how to harvest resources in the right way so if you are new to the genre it might be a little hard to get your footing on certain base mechanics, I recommend paying attention to the tool icons and really making sure you are using the right tool for the job.

The enemy diversity isnt great, but what they do have is quite engaging, There are a good mix of ranged and melee encounters and the enemies have various aoe effects that they can attack with. The character design is phenomenal, and i am typically not interested in the steam punk aesthetic, but they really do it well. I look forward to seeing how they may develop the habitat further. Nothing is too spongy and over all the upgrades you make feel meaningful. The damage distribution across enemy attacks really feels like it is balanced well if you play the way they expect you to, I have yet to run into an area that things just one hit me. Granted, it is pretty easy not to get hit, especially if you have the umbrella and a companion, i am hoping that AI behavior is something that will get developed over time and that there may be more versatile combat behaviors.

I am playing currently in the offline mode which i hear has been re-balanced for single player so i think that is something to consider when reading this.

Over all, my initial experience is very positive, I was looking for a game with an engaging world that had some dynamism leading to a strong emphasis on exploration and I feel pretty satisfied so far. If this feeling fades over the rest of my game play I will edit this review to reflect that.

This is a very unique game and that in itself makes this worth the cost for me, I wont tell you that it isnt filled with EA jank and that it is on par with triple a titles

The biggest thing I was worried about before buying this game was that it would be another lifeless barely playable concept project put into early access too soon. And after my initial play time i can assure you it is not.

For additional reference I typically mainline open world shooters, my go tos lately have been S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly, Ghost Recon Wildlands, and Some ARMA 3 mods. So it is a bit of a departure to say the least coming here. But maybe you can relate.

I am not a Bethesda fan, I have only ever really put the less than necessary amount of hours into any of their previous titles. I was told that I would probably not like Starfield due to this lack of Bethesda formula enjoyment. So far, 64 hours in and on NG+ 2 and I am really loving the game play, the world building and the wide range of interactions I have found throughout all the various planets. It feels like I don't sit down and play without seeing something completely new every session. Not to ignore the amount of repetition you can find throughout much of the new planet loops, but within the moment to moment discoveries I get lead down new paths and shown new sides of the universe. It is interesting that so much of the universe (minus main story events) happens with or without you around you. I don't feel like my choices hold as much weight as they did in Skyrim but I also don't know if they would really hold that much weight in the scope of a universe where everytime you leave a planet you are gone for possibly minutes or decades depending on which system you folded into. I run this on a 1650 and sit at a comfortable 30 fps which is not a problem for me, though I know thats a deal breaker for alot of people. I grew up playing games on dial up all the way to 2010 lol frame drops do nothing for me. I had a ng+ bug that took me through 2 times before I realized it was a bug and lost all my progress, if you loose access to your inventory for multiple playthroughs (I don't care what people say, its a bug. or a bad mechanic) open your console and then close it and it should fix the problem, you should be able to save then. But I will say after experiencing this foray into ng+ itterations, Its an absolute trip. I am thoroughly enjoying the game overall and see myself putting atleast hundreds of hours into it even without dlc.

The pacing of the large scale battles is truly unique, and I have seriously never felt a more satisfying pvp encounter other than maybe in pubg. There is definitely some EA stuff to smooth out, but the devs are very active and responsive. I have had no trouble finding a game, though that is on NA servers. If you are having any graphical stutters try setting the resolution scaling to 50% it looks great and runs smooth. I have a 1660 and it has had no problems all day. I definitely recommend trying the game, the skill ceiling is high and sometimes that can be frustrating but the map design keeps that pretty well moderated.

I really love the variety of time and animation based abilities. I see that on Github the Dev has a multiplayer project that uses very similar bullet time effects, which I think is breathtaking. I am really excited to see this game as Xaeon works through the final touches. I have only played for a couple hours at the moment but I am already anticipating many more. I made a video from my first stream of the game which you can check out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zwesMWyjNk

reliably testing experience that only gets better with age and separation. worth revisiting.

Picking this game up in 2021 is one of the best choices I’ve made this year, other than the context of a global pandemic to set the mood I have also spent the last few years getting reinvested in fantastic movement systems in shooters, from Apex to dishonored this game has a really versatile suit of intuitively bound abilities that let you choose your approach and interaction with it’s story and world. I have only played about 10 hours up to this point and foresee spending a few hundred more just exploring the world and maxing out my skill trees. I am not a fan of survival or zombie games. This is definitely one of my new must plays, which is incredible to me, because, again, i hate zombie and survival games.